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Ozzie promises changes on handling of injuries

MIAMI — There’s going to be some changes around Marlins camp when it comes to injuries.

Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen has kept his cool on a number of things that have gone wrong for the Marlins this year. When it comes to players being hurt and how they go about recovering, his voice raised.

“I expect everybody here to be healthy for Spring Training and be ready to go,” Guillen said. “If not, they’re going to be surprised. A lot of surprises.”

Logan Morrison will undergo surgery on his right knee on Sept. 5. The procedure, which will be performed by Dr. Richard Steadman in Colorado, will come nine months after Morrison had surgery to the same knee.

Recovery time is about six months. To Guillen, he is upset that Morrison didn’t have the surgery immediately after the 2011 season. Instead, it was performed in early December, after he aggravated the knee while playing for an MLB team that traveled to Taiwan last October and into November.

Morrison ended up missing most of Spring Training, and on July 29, he went on the disabled list.

Emilio Bonifacio has a right knee sprain, and he has been on the DL since Aug. 19. Bonifacio likely is done for the season.

If he needs a procedure, Guillen would like to see him get it soon.

“It’s time for this organization to move on and be tough on the players and do the right thing,” Guillen said. “I think we’re going to let LoMo rest, and make sure he is better for the first day of Spring Training, ready to go. It’s going to be a challenge for him. I hope he’s healthy.”

Guillen understands with Morrison that the doctors were waiting for the inflammation to go down to accurately determine what was wrong.

As for Bonifacio, Guillen said: “In my opinion, with Boni, if you need to go in, clean it up, do it right now, and I’ll see you in Spring Training.

“Second opinion is always going to come, with the doctors. But we’re not going to go through it, ‘Ok, let’s wait for another month, it might be better. Let’s wait for another two weeks, it might heal.’ It ain’t never happen.”

Guillen said that happened with reliever Juan Carlos Oviedo, on the DL since July 23 with a right elbow sprain.

“That happened with Oviedo,” Guillen said. “Wait for another month, they’ve got to go in [with surgery]. Why you not do it two months ago? But agents, and people and doctors and different opinions, make those guys take a different way.

“Now it’s time for the Marlins to take it our way. That’s the way we’re going to take. I don’t care about opinions. I don’t care about what you guys think. That’s the way we’re going to do it. That’s the way we’re going to do it from now on.”

In 2013, Guillen doesn’t want a repeat where Morrison and Giancarlo Stanton (left knee) were out for much of Spring Training.

“Not when I’m here. Because all of a sudden, those guys play bad, have surgery, rehab, and I’m the one who is going to get fired,” Guillen said. “If I’m going to get fired, I’ll do it my way. If they’re going to fire me, I can go home and say, they fired me because I was bad. Because too many different things happened. We paid them a lot of money for them to play for us. They’ve got to respond to us, to the Marlins.”

The Marlins have endured a rough year, where they never got on track. Some of the spotty play is due to injuries.

“We’ve got to show responsibility,” the manager said. “It’s our way. It’s not your agent’s way. It’s not your own doctors way. It’s the Marlins’ way. If you don’t like it, talk to your agent, and lets see what happens. This year was kind of funny. That ain’t going to happen.

“It’s not going to happen like it did in the past. Last year, LoMo went to [Taiwan], I don’t know, I don’t know why. I think this year, he’s going to have surgery. I expect LoMo to be back in Spring Training, ready to be with the full-squad the first day of Spring Training. I’m not planning on playing LoMo in B Games, Minor League games, to see how he was. If LoMo can play in A Game in Spring Training, then he’s got to work hard, because, if not, he’s not going to have a job here.”

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